It's a small book that has such an unusual quirk the intended movie version would have quite a left-field director, yet the story would be quite universal.

It's certainly not about Los Angeles, or being gay, or being middle-aged and a failed writer with none of the standard relationships it's common in society to have.

It's about a chap looking back and seeing just how much his life is affected by the singular, small presence of a sausage dog of all things, and of the impossibility of seeing any of that affect as at all negative. So this book is about the smugness of a person with a dog – that perfect match that makes a person say they need nothing and nobody else, until of course they do. And of course Ted needs Lily – that goes without saying he readily picks his therapist apart in his mind, he has a best friend but no real partner to turn to, and he probably doesn't need anyone else because he has Lily. Lily needs Ted, and even though she seems to accept and understand the biology of the octopus, she is quite blasé about it – she is a mature dog, of course, even if she does have the occasional childish moment. Love in the most straightening, heart-breaking situation. But this isn't a book about Ted, nor about Lily. Give a human an octopus, not a dog, they might say. The quirk might be a step too far towards the unusual. I can see, however, many people thinking the approach is too twee, for all that they might be laughing. And what it is is bound to stir up the emotions of a book that can be really funny, and quite gallingly sincere. It too goes along with the metaphor, even when we know what it exactly is. Except the said 'octopus' is quite happy to be called, and to behave like, an octopus. Now, while you might sit through this book debating how literally Lily does do that speaking, and I think it's up for debate for a long time, you only turn a couple of pages to work out that it's not literally an octopus. Oh, and yes, Lily has an octopus on her head. Oh, and yes, Lily talks to Ted, either in FULLY! CAPITALISED! EVER! EXCLAMATORY! BARKS! or in regular speech. He tries to write, but Friday night is board games, Saturday night is movie night, and Sunday night is pizza night.

Ted's sister's unusual marriage was almost marred by Lily being under the surgeon's knife, at great expense – but on the whole they have life sorted. They've been together through thick and thin, ever since the little pup – the runt, no less – seemed to pick Ted out. While the fall-out of relationships with men sends him to therapy, he can rely on Lily, the Dachshund. A middle-aged, gay Los Angelino, he has the one love of his life.

Lily and the octopus book review